The Indiana Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday on a case pitting fantasy sports companies against athletes who want compensation for the use of their names, photos and statistics.

The athletes point to state law that gives individuals the right to control how their names are used for commercial purposes. It's called their "right of publicity." But there are exceptions to the law.

The case has national implications for the emerging and massive market of legal sports betting. If the athletes prevail, it could open the door to players unions demanding licensing fees from legal casinos that use players for "proposition" bets. Those are based on an individual's performance, such as whether someone will score a touchdown or hit a home run in a game.

Former Indiana University football player Nick Stoner and two other plaintiffs filed a class-action lawsuit against fantasy sports companies FanDuel and DraftKings. Stoner was not in the courtroom because of a work commitment. The other players, both of whom played football at Northern Illinois University, were present.

The athletes appealed after a federal district judge dismissed the case in 2017. In March, the appellate court asked the Indiana Supreme Court to interpret state law on the issue, citing no precedent in Indiana and a "dearth" of precedent in other states.

Noting the interest in the case outside Indiana, Chief Justice Loretta H. Rush invited "friend of the court" briefs. Some powerful interests weighed in. They included the players unions of all the major sports leagues; Indianapolis-based CMG Worldwide, which markets and protects the publicity rights of its long list of legendary people; and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

It will be weeks or months before the justices issue their ruling.

Here are five takeaways from the arguments:

1.Are fantasy sports sites reporting news?

A crucial point in the case is whether the fantasy sports companies are providing material that's "newsworthy" or "reporting of an event ... of public interest."

That would allow FanDuel and DraftKings to operate under an exception to Indiana law that gives individuals control over the commercial use of their name.

Fantasy sports players earn points for their athletes' performance in various statistical categories. Points are added up to determine winners. The fantasy sports sites update statistics in real-time.

Attorney Ian Gershengorn, representing FanDuel and DraftKings, said "public domain statistics are absolutely newsworthy." He noted the routine use of athletes' names and statistics by newspapers.

“This is about updating technology for the 21st century and allowing interaction with those statistics.

“The competitive aspect enhances the newsworthiness of (fantasy) games. ... That is exactly the kind of interaction with statistics that helps people understand them better."

Todd McLawhorn, speaking for the athletes, said the fantasy sports companies are "trying to be a newspaper and a game."

The fantasy sports companies, he said, make the claims that "'it’s news, we’re a 21st century media company and we’re having our customers engage with stats.' That is no different than poker players in Vegas engaging with math by playing cards.”

McLawhorn argued that the fantasy games themselves have to be newsworthy, not the statistics being used.

"I would submit no one is interested in how a particular individual's fantasy team fared," he said. "No one cares, except the individual. It’s not news reporting."

2. Using high school players for fantasy sports

An attorney for the athletes warned that high school athletes could be used in commercial fantasy games if the companies prevail in this case.

"We don't do that," Gershengorn said, "we have no plans to do that."

But Gershengorn did say that in theory FanDuel and DraftKings would be within their rights to offer such games using high school players. He said he understands "discomfort" with that position but that it's consistent with his argument for college and professional sports.

The fantasy companies could use the high school players' names and statistics "the same way those players could be covered in the New York Times or Indianapolis Star."

3. 'Gambling' and 'stakes in human beings'

Attorneys for the athletes routinely characterized the fantasy sports games as "gambling." They referred to building a fantasy sports roster as "buying stakes in players" and "buying stakes in human beings."

"They're putting a price tag on Mr. Stingily and others," McLawhorn said of one of the plaintiffs, Cameron Stingily.

Fantasy players have a fictional budget and "buy" athletes for their rosters based on prices set by the company.

Justice Mark Massa asked if a boxer in Indiana would have publicity rights if betting becomes legal and a company takes bets on the fight.

"They possibly could, yes," said W. Clifton Holmes, an attorney for the athletes.

That gets at the reason all of the players unions of the major sports leagues joined in filing a friend of the court brief in the case. If players have publicity rights that extend to fantasy sports, they could have the same for individual "proposition" bets as the massive legal sports gambling market emerges. They could look to collect licensing fees from casinos taking bets.

4. Advertising

There was discussion of cases involving Michael Jordan and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, both of whom sued over right of publicity.

Jordan won a case in which a grocery-store chain, without his permission, congratulated him on his Hall of Fame induction as part of an ad for steak.

After a favorable decision in appellate court, Abdul-Jabbar settled out of court with General Motors, which used his former name, Lew Alcindor, as part of a trivia question in a car ad.

Holmes said there's a "false endorsement issue" because a relatively low percentage of football players are used for potential rosters in daily fantasy sports.

Gershengorn responded that nobody got the impression that the former football players in this case were endorsing Fanduel or DraftKings.

"Just like nobody thinks (athletes are) advertising for the New York Times or the Indianapolis Star because they print their sports statistics," he said.

5.First Amendment

FanDuel and DraftKings also make the argument that their free speech is protected by the First Amendment.

That, however, was not the question the appellate court asked the Indiana Supreme Court to answer.

The appellate court said it needed the state Supreme Court to interpret an aspect of Indiana law before getting to the First Amendment question.